May 13 (Bloomberg) -- The city of Almaty, Kazakhstan, sued
its former mayor Viktor Khrapunov in California, claiming he
“looted” $300 million through the sale of state-owned real
estate and funnelled the money to Switzerland and the U.S.

Khrapunov’s children and their spouses have used the stolen
funds to buy property in the Los Angeles area, including a $6.2
million home in Beverly Hills and a $5.7 million, 2-acre estate
in Studio City, and lease Rolls Royce and Bentley sedans,
according to the complaint filed today in federal court in Los
Angeles.

Almaty accuses Khrapunov and his family or racketeering and
fraud and it seeks restitution as well as triple damages.

The former mayor, who lives in Switzerland, left Kazakhstan
in 2007. Almaty alleges he and his wife used rigged auctions to
buy state-owned real estate at artificially suppressed prices
and then sold them at a profit. Khrapunov has been charged in
Kazakhstan with theft of public property, according to the
city’s complaint.

Khrapunov didn’t immediately respond to a request for
comment sent to the e-mail address on his website. According to
the site, he left Kazakhstan in 2007 to seek medical treatment
abroad. He was mayor of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, from
June 1997 to December 2004.

The case is City of Almaty v. Khrapunov, 14-3650, U.S.
District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).

To contact the reporter on this story:
Edvard Pettersson in Federal court in Los Angeles at